Our Sesame Ground Chicken is a #1 recipe for good reason. It’s on the table in 15 minutes, packed with lean protein and has a flavor that everyone loves! Serve with rice or ramen noodles on the side to soak up all of the delicious, sweet sesame sauce.
Why You’ll Love This Sesame Ground Chicken Recipe
Not only is this Sesame Ground Chicken easy to make, I promise you everyone is going to love it. You can keep it mild like we have done here and then spic up your own bowl if you like. Kids love it, adults love, even the pickiest of eaters.
- Easy To Make: This ground chicken recipe is ready to serve in just 15 minutes. That’s it. Steam some rice in the microwave and dinner is done.
- High Protein Meal: If you’re looking for a lean protein recipe for meal prepping or just easy dinners, this is the one.
- Make Ahead Recipe: Make ahead of time and simply warm in the microwave for easy dinners or lunches to go.
Ingredients You’ll Need
By now, we’ve made this recipe so much that we have all of the ingredients on hand. If you’ve never used chili garlic sauce before, it’s a sweet and mildly spicy sauce that adds tons of flavor. For a complete list of ingredients and amounts needed, scroll down to the recipe card at the end of the post.
- Ground Chicken: You can use ground chicken with 8% fat or ground chicken “breast” that is leaner.
- Yellow Onion
- Garlic: Fresh garlic or garlic paste (usually in a tube, found in the produce aisle).
- Chili Garlic Sauce: Usually found where the soy sauce is in your grocery store. If you can find it, there’s an Amazon link above the photo.
- Soy Sauce
- Brown Sugar
- Toasted Sesame Oil
- Chicken Broth
- Cornstarch
How To Make
All you need to do is cook the ground chicken into crumbles along with onions and garlic. Drain any drippings from the skillet and then whisk the sauce together. It’s that simple.
Thicken the sauce with a mixture of cornstarch and water, let it simmer for five minutes and you’re ready to serve. We like to garnish this ground chicken with chopped scallions and sesame seeds and serve it with rice or cauliflower rice.
Variations
For the protein you can swap out ground turkey, ground pork or even lean ground beef. Any protein you like will work fine.
If sugar is an issue for you, try using a stevia based brown sugar instead, or just cut down on the amount here. Tons of vegetables can also be added to this recipe – broccoli, snap peas and shredded carrots are just a few ideas.
Storing, Freezing and Reheating
This is a great recipe to meal prep with for the week, so we often make it in large quantities. Keep this Sesame Ground Chicken covered in your refrigerator, or in a container for up to 4 days. Reheating is as easy as popping a bowl in the microwave.
And yes, you can also freeze this ground chicken too! If you’re really looking to plan a few meals ahead of time, make this chicken and let it cool completely before freezing. A good meal prepping tip is to freeze the chicken in individual portions for an easy lunch or dinner, or something the kids can grab on their own!
Looking For More Easy Chicken Recipes?
- Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry
- Chicken Francese
- Hawaiian Pulled Chicken
- Chipotle Creamy Salsa Chicken
- Sweet Chili Chicken Wings
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Sesame Ground Chicken
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 6 Servings 1x
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeOur Sesame Ground Chicken is a #1 recipe for good reason. It’s on the table in 15 minutes, packed with lean protein and has a flavor that everyone loves! Serve with rice or ramen noodles on the side to soak up all of the delicious, sweet sesame sauce.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
- 2 pounds ground chicken breast
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Fresh black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon chili garlic sauce
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1–2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil (to taste, start with 1 and add more if desired)
- 1/3 cup chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon of water (see note)
- Chopped scallions and sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Add the olive oil to a skillet over medium heat. Cook the onion for 3-4 minutes until softened, then add the garlic and cook a minute longer.
- Add the ground chicken to the skillet and cook while breaking up into small pieces until the chicken is cooked through. Drain any drippings from the skillet. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Mix the chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and chicken broth together in a bowl. Pour over the ground chicken and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and then add the cornstarch mixture while stirring. Simmer the chicken until the sauce is thickened, taste for seasonings and serve with scallions and sesame seeds.
Recipe Notes
Instead of mixing the cornstarch with water and adding after the sauce comes to a simmer, you can add the cornstarch right to the sauce mixture (minus the water) and whisk to combine. Once the sauce comes to a simmer the sauce will thicken.
Store: Store leftovers in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Freeze: This ground chicken recipe freezes very well for meal prepping. Store in an air tight container or freezer bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: American
Delicious! I used ground chicken and being that I did not have chili garlic sauce I resorted to gochujang sauce and it was delicious. I made it two times so far and I’m impressed, so is my wife! Very easy to make and a quick meal. Definitely worth trying.
We don’t really like spicy food so I used Sweet Chili Thai Sauce instead of the Garlic Chili Sauce. It was so good that I added extra. When it was done it tasted good but I thought it needed something more so I quickly stir fried some sweet bell peppers and celery and threw it in. Delicious! Everyone loved it!
Love it! I was looking for a recipe that used ground chicken and this was one of the first ones that popped up on Google. Literally so easy and makes a good amount as meal prep for the week. Only thing I didn’t use was the chili but still came out wonderful!
I need to substitute Worcester Sauce for soy. I would cut the brown sugar down next time but will definitely make again. Very good. Thank you.
I need to substitute Worcester Sauce for soy. I would cut the brown sugar down next time but will definitely make again. Very good. Thank you.
Extremely salty and spicy! Not sure what I did wrong. Definitely not for my kids but nonetheless delicious. Will modify next time with less salt and less chilli garlic sauce. Strange because I did measure everything and bought organic, less sodium for soy sauce etc etc either way I will attempt again because it definitely helps my cravings with sesame and Asian food. Thank you!
Are you using kosher salt or table salt? If you’re using table salt that could be why, it’s much finer and will result in a more salty tasting meal. Or just leave the salt out altogether and add a pinch at the end if need be. As far as the chili garlic paste, if you need it to be kid friendly, you can omit that as well and just add it to your portion if you need a bit of spice. Hope this helps!
Daniela, you should try Coconut Aminos. They make a soy sauce that has even less salt than Tamari, & it’s delicious. I’m on a low salt diet because of my husband’s high blood pressure, & I’ve become sensitive to salt. This works & gives me the Unami flavor I crave without a salt headache.
Dinner tonight
If you want to use coconut aminos would you reduce the sugar and add any salt?
I’m not too familiar with the flavor since we don’t use it. I’d start off by cutting back and then you can always add!
easy and delicious
Amazing and so easy!! We cut the 1x in half and it was a perfect dinner for 2!
i’ve made this before and loved it! today i have ground turkey on hand, would this be an appropriate substitution?
Yep! We make it with ground turkey all the time!
I made this today and we absolutely loved it. The only thing i did differently was to add water chestnuts. We both love them in dishes like this and like the crunch. I will be making this often. So easy to add other ingredients. Will add finely shredded carrots next time too just to add some vegetables. Thanks for such a satisfying meal.
I am making this tonight. I have made it before and saved the recipe. It’s a total keeper. My picky kids love it. Tonight instead of rice I am serving it as a noodle bowl and the kids can pick their add ins from tomatoes, cukes, blanched broccoli, and sautéed Asian cabbage. Thank you so much, it helps to have a variety of recipes for affordable ground chicken. Easy to do this with ground beef or sliced sirloin too.
All of that sounds delicious! I’m so glad you like it, it’s a favorite of ours as well:)
My kids and I loved this. We will be making this often now. I have struggled with finding recipes for ground chicken and this adds a great alternative to meatballs. I will be decreasing the amount of sugar though as a matter of personal taste. This will be great with rice bowls and veggies too.
Fantastic and successful! Thank you for sharing. I substituted the sugar for honey because I had none on hand and it seemed to do the trick (it tasted good at least to me!).
+1 to the lettuce wraps comment above. I made a large batch, rice for lunch and lettuce wrap for dinner.
Fantastic recipe! We’re not into spicy so instead of the chili paste I substituted from another post hoisin, red pepper flakes & rice vinegar.